Rui Patrício injury overshadows Diogo Jota's Liverpool winner at Wolves
Get well soon, Rui Patrício. That thought was foremost in everyone’s minds at Molineux after the Wolves goalkeeper was carried off with a head injury just before the end of a match decided by Diogo Jota’s first-half goal. Patrício was hurt in an accidental collision with the knee of his teammate Conor Coady as the pair tried to close down Mohamed Salah. Medics treated him on the pitch for 14 minutes before moving him.
Nuno Espírito Santo said later that Patrício was conscious and might not need a stay in hospital, though the goalkeeper will be closely monitored for at least the next 48 hours at least.
Until Patrício’s misfortune the main consideration here was the influence of the only goalscorer. Never mind his return to Molineux, Diogo Jota is back for Liverpool. His 10th goal for the Merseyside club since joining from Wolves last summer was his first since regaining fitness after a three-month lay-off and not only did it give Liverpool maximum points from a vibrant contest, it confirmed how important he is to their hopes of salvaging joy from a miserable season.
He was far from the best player in a visiting team that betrayed little sign of weariness but he still found the decisive touch that has eluded Roberto Firmino, in particular, for most of the season. The 24-year-old is held in high regard in the Midlands but, truth be told, he was not as vital to Wolves in his final months there as he has become to Liverpool.
Just as encouragingly for Jürgen
Klopp, Ozan Kabak and Nat Phillips were solid in central defence. This was their third match starting alongside each other in the sector where Liverpool have been most vulnerable this season and it yielded a third clean sheet. Wolves made them work for it.
Having accepted that Liverpool’s only remaining route to glory this season is the Champions League, and given how injuries have hobbled his team throughout the campaign, Klopp might have been tempted to rest a key player or two to preserve them for European competition even if that meant inviting other clubs to finish above them in the Premier League. But that tends not to be how Klopp operates and his selection suggested he regretted dallying with rotation in his team’s last league match, a limp 1-0 home defeat by Fulham. Instead the German sent out the same side that started last week’s Champions League victory over RB Leipzig, arguing that regaining momentum on the domestic front could help his team advance on the continent.
Their defence was stretched in the second minute when Adama Traoré flew past Andy Robertson and delivered a cross that Alisson needed two attempts to claim. Moments later the goalkeeper parried a shot by Nélson Semedo, who had raided down the same flank after Traoré moved infield to cause havoc.
Nuno has been frustrated all season by his team’s habit of starting matches slowly but the evidence suggested he had found a solution to that problem, as Wolves were sharper and neater all over the pitch early on. But Liverpool cut them open in the 11th minute when Gini Wijnaldum released Sadio Mané. Patrício did enough to force the Senegalese wide so that the angle was too tight for him to shoot after skipping past the goalkeeper.
Now the contest had a gripping flow, with the teams launching tit-for-tat attacks, though neither could produce a killer final touch. Kabak did well to stop Traoré from unleashing a shot from 15 yards after another slick Wolves move. Coady make a crucial block in the 24th minute to deny Wijnaldum a chance after wonderful mischief-making down the right by Trent Alexander-Arnold and Salah. Soon Phillips had to stage an equally important intervention at the other end.
Five minutes before the break Salah and Alexander-Arnold combined nicely again before the full-back crossed for Mané, who sent a plunging header just wide from 11 yards. Jonny invited Rúben Neves to give Wolves a lead to take into the interval but he blasted wide 15 yards. He rued that all the more when Jota struck moments later.
The goal came from a counterattack featuring all three of Liverpool’s forwards, and when Mané fed Jota on the left of the home penalty area, the Portuguese fired it in at the near post, with Patrício getting a hand on it but unable to stop it.
Wolves came out like a side determined to right a wrong. Willian José would have had a chance to equalise if Phillips had not beaten him to a cross. Then Coady was given a free header from eight yards but nodded it over. Wolves were coming on strong but Liverpool threatened to strike on the counter again in the 55th minute, only for Jonny to ambush Salah just as the forward wound up a shot.
Liverpool managed the remainder of the game well, with Alisson making comfortable saves from Traoré and Fábio Silva. Salah then ran through late on and put the ball in the net; he was just offside but Coady and Patrício had collided as they sought to thwart him.